U.S. patent application number 11/182514 was filed with the patent office on 2006-01-26 for addressing and printing apparatus and method.
Invention is credited to Michael O. Norris, Dale E. Redford.
Application Number | 20060016738 11/182514 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35655989 |
Filed Date | 2006-01-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060016738 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Norris; Michael O. ; et
al. |
January 26, 2006 |
Addressing and printing apparatus and method
Abstract
A method of processing unsorted mail pieces for delivery
includes the steps of sorting mail pieces destined for delivery to
a single delivery point into a group, printing human readable
destination information corresponding to the delivery point of the
group on a section of wrapping material, and wrapping the group of
mail pieces with the wrapping material bearing the human readable
destination information in a complete or abbreviated form. A
machine readable code, such as a bar code may also be printed on
the wrapping material and subsequently scanned to insure proper
sequencing of the bundles of wrapped mail pieces.
Inventors: |
Norris; Michael O.;
(Colleyville, TX) ; Redford; Dale E.; (Grand
Prairie, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Philip G. Meyers Law Office
Suite 300
1009 Long Prairie Road
Flower Mound
TX
75022
US
|
Family ID: |
35655989 |
Appl. No.: |
11/182514 |
Filed: |
July 15, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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60588531 |
Jul 16, 2004 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
209/584 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B07C 3/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
209/584 |
International
Class: |
G06K 9/00 20060101
G06K009/00; B07C 5/00 20060101 B07C005/00 |
Claims
1. A method of processing unsorted mail pieces for delivery
comprising: sorting mail pieces destined for delivery to a single
delivery point into a group; printing human readable destination
information corresponding to the delivery point of the group on a
section of wrapping material; and wrapping the group of mail pieces
with the wrapping material bearing the human readable destination
information.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of scanning
the mail pieces for destination information.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the wrapping material is a plastic
film.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the group of mail pieces comprises
a stack, the method further comprising determining the size of the
stack.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising determining the amount
of wrapping material needed to wrap the stack.
6. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining a location
on the wrapping material for printing the human readable
destination information such that the human readable information
appears at a predetermined location on the stack after the mail
pieces have been wrapped.
7. The method of claim 5 further comprising printing the human
readable destination information on the wrapping material such that
the human readable information appears at a predetermined location
on the group after the mail pieces have been wrapped.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of printing a
machine readable code on the wrapping material; and scanning the
machine readable code after the group of mail pieces has been
wrapped.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising printing the human
readable destination information in an abbreviated form.
10. A method of processing unsorted mail pieces for delivery
comprising: scanning the mail pieces for destination information;
sorting the mail pieces into a plurality of stacks; transmitting
delivery point destination information for each of the stacks to a
system controller, the system controller transmitting the
information to a printer; printing destination information for each
of the stacks on wrapping material, the destination information
being printed in human readable form; and wrapping each stack with
a section of wrapping material having human readable destination
information printed on the wrapping material to create a bundle of
mail pieces destined for the same delivery point.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of
transmitting the destination information from the system controller
to a printer controller.
12. The method of claim 10 further comprising loading the bundles
into a container; monitoring one of the level of the stacks in the
container as the stacks are loaded into the container; and
transmitting a signal when the level of the bundles in the
container reaches a predetermined level.
13. The method of claim 10 further comprising loading the bundles
into a container; monitoring the weight of the container as the
bundles are loaded into the container; and transmitting a signal
when the weight of the container reaches a predetermined level.
14. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining at least
one dimension of each stack; using the dimension to determine the
location on the wrapping material where the destination information
will be printed.
15. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining a
location on the wrapping material for printing the human readable
destination information such that the human readable information
appears at a predetermined location on each of the bundles after
the mail pieces have been wrapped.
16. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of printing
a machine readable code on the wrapping material; and scanning the
machine readable code after the stack or pieces has been
wrapped.
17. The method of claim 10 wherein the human readable destination
information is printed on the wrapping material in an abbreviated
form.
18. The method of claim 10 wherein the wrapping material is a
plastic film.
Description
[0001] This application claims priority of U.S. Ser. No.
60/588,531, filed Jul. 16, 2004.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates to mail processing for delivery, and
in particular, to the use of prearranged or pre-ordered material
used to package groups of letters, flats and small parcels to
facilitate delivery of the mail.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Each day the United States Postal Service (USPS) receives,
sorts and delivers millions of mail pieces to millions of postal
patrons across the United States. In order to sort this huge volume
of mail pieces faster and more efficiently, a number of different
methods, machines and systems have been proposed. For example, U.S.
Pat. No. 6,659,263, issued Dec. 9, 2003 to Hendrickson et al.,
proposes the use of staging towers disposed over a conveyor for
collating flat mail pieces onto the conveyor. U.S. Pat. No.
6,555,776 issued Apr. 29, 2003 to Roth et al. discloses a system
for sorting letters and flats in a single feed one pass mixed mail
sequencer. Schererz et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No.
09/969,274, filed Oct. 2, 2001 (Publication No. U.S. 20020070149)
is directed to a mixed mail sorting machine. Pippin et al., U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 10/142,348, filed May 9, 2002
(Publication No. U.S. 200300386065) discloses an apparatus and
method for mail sorting in which one or more delivery robots
receive mail pieces and travel along a track to deliver the mail
pieces to one of a plurality of destination slots.
[0004] Currently, mail carriers deliver mail pieces, including
letters, flats and parcels, to postal patrons on a daily basis. At
local postal offices, carriers receive mail for delivery from a
number of sources, which may be unsorted or sorted to varying
degrees. Letter mail typically arrives in several separate streams.
First, manual letter mail origination from a processing facility
arrives at the local postal office in the early morning hours. This
mail may be pre-sorted by carrier route before delivery at the
processing facility manual cases or through an automated sort. The
mail carrier cases this mail to place it in delivery point order.
Second, delivery sequenced letter mail arrives in trays that the
carrier takes directly onto his or her route. Finally, the carrier
receives non-automated enhanced carrier route letters that are
prepared in delivery point sequence or line-of-travel order. The
carrier may case this mail or take it directly onto his route.
[0005] In addition to letter mail, the carrier will receive tubs of
carrier route flats from the processing facility which have been
prepared by automated systems. The carrier will also receive
manually prepared carrier route flats. The flats can either be
delivered to the local postal office by the processing facility
where the flats have been crossed docked or sorted on a Small
Bundle Parcel Sorter (SBPS) or delivered directly from the mailer
via destination unit drop shipment.
[0006] Parcels constitute another stream of mail pieces that the
carrier receives. Parcels may arrive from the processing facility
or directly from the mailer. Parcels are sorted to delivery route
at the local postal office.
[0007] The mail carrier arranges the mail in manual cases and/or
tubs based upon the practicalities of the route and the mix of mail
to be delivered. After the casing operation has been completed, the
carrier pulls the mail down from the cases and places each bundle
or mail piece in delivery order sequence in a hard plastic tray. As
each tray is filled, it is placed in a hamper. Thus, the carrier
ends up with multiple containers of different types of mail.
Carrier casing, pull down and fingering through multiple containers
of mail is an inefficient, time consuming operation. Carrier
productivity could be greatly enhanced if the carrier were to spend
more time delivering mail than performing casing and sorting
operations. Thus, there is a desire among postal services world
wide to automate these manual operations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] A method of processing unsorted mail pieces for delivery
includes the steps of: (a) scanning the mail piece for destination
information, (b) sorting the mail pieces onto a plurality of
stacks, (c) transmitting delivery point destination information for
each of the stack to a system controller, the system controller
transmitting the information to a printer, (d) printing destination
information for each of the stacks on wrapping material, the
destination information being printed in human readable form, and
(e) wrapping each stack with a section of wrapping material having
human readable destination information printed on the wrapping
material to create a bundle of mail pieces destined for the same
delivery point. In one variation, the system controller transmits
the information to a printer controller which, in turn, transmits
the destination information to the printer. After wrapping, the
bundles are loaded into a container. The amount of mail loaded in
the container may be monitored with one or both of a proximity
switch which measures the level of the stack of bundles in the
container or a scale which monitors the weight of the container.
When the level of the bundles of mail in the container reaches a
predetermined height or the weight of the container reaches a
predetermined amount, the system controller signals for an
automated or manual replacement of the container with an empty
container.
[0009] In another aspect, one or more dimensions of each stack of
mail pieces is determined as the stacks are conveyed to the
wrapping machine using detectors such as photo cells, an encoder or
proximity switches. The system controller utilizes this information
to determine the amount of wrapping material required to wrap the
stack. The system controller also utilizes the dimensions of the
stack to determine where the human readable destination information
should be printed on the wrapping material. Preferably, the
destination information appears in substantially the same location
on each bundle of mail pieces and further, may be placed so as to
not obscure advertising appearing on the mail pieces. Preferably,
the wrapping material is thin plastic film which may be opaque or
transparent, depending upon the particular application. One
wrapping machine believed to be suitable for use in the practice of
the invention is the Eclipse-640 polywrap system provided by
Eclipse systems, Buckingham, United Kingdom.
[0010] In yet another aspect, the system controller is programmed
to transmit an abbreviated form of the human readable destination
information to the printer controller, thereby reducing the cycle
time of the printer and the amount of material needed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of one system suitable
for practicing the method of the invention;
[0012] FIG. 2 is a front view of a first bundle of mail wrapped in
accordance with the invention;
[0013] FIG. 3 is an end view of the bundle of FIG. 2;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a front view of a second bundle of mail wrapped in
accordance with the invention; and
[0015] FIG. 5 is an end view of the bundle of FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0016] Referring to FIG. 1, in a mail packaging and addressing
system 10 of the invention, stacks 20 of mail pieces are received
from a sorting device 22 and loaded onto a conveyor 24. Sorting
device 22 may comprise a conventional sorting machine such as a
DBCS (Delivery Bar Code Sorter) or other sorting machine such as
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,263, issued Dec. 9, 2003 to
Hendrickson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,555,776 issued Apr. 29, 2003 to
Roth et al. or Schererz et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No.
09/969,274, filed Oct. 2, 2001 (Publication No. U.S. 20020070149).
The disclosures of each of the foregoing references are
incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
[0017] Each "stack" 20 of mail is destined for a single address and
may comprise a single letter, flat or small parcel, groups of
letters, flats or small parcels or a single group consisting of a
mix of letters, flats or small parcels. Thus, the sizes of stacks
20 will vary depending upon the amount and type of mail destined
for a particular delivery point. The delivery point address of each
stack has previously been recorded either with a scanner associated
with sorting device 22 or other automated sorting system, or
manually, depending upon the particular application. The delivery
point address of each stack 22 is transmitted to system controller
26 for use in applying. address information to stacks 20.
[0018] As stacks 20 are transported by conveyor 24, the leading and
trailing edges of each stack 20 are sensed with a position detector
mounted adjacent to conveyor 24 such as a photocell 28. Conveyor 24
is also provided with an encoder 32 or a similar speed sensing
device that transmits a signal to system controller 26 indicating
the speed of conveyor 24. Utilizing the signals from position
indicator 28 and encoder 32 along with the destination codes
assigned to stacks 20, system controller 26 can track the position
of a particular stack 20 bound for a particular destination as the
stack travels along conveyor 24. System controller 26 can also
calculate the length of each stack utilizing the input from
photocell 28 which registers the leading and trailing edges of each
stack and encoder 32 which transmits the speed of conveyor 24 to
system controller 26.
[0019] As illustrated, a roll 34 of wrapping film 36 is positioned
adjacent conveyor 24 for wrapping stacks 20. Preferably, wrapping
film 36 is an opaque or transparent polymer film such as a
polyethylene polymer or copolymer. Film 36 is fed from roll 34
through or past a printer 38 which is controlled with printer
controller 40 which also controls the operation of conveyor 24.
Printer controller 40 is interfaced with system controller 26 which
transmits the destination information for stack 20 to printer
controller 40. Printer controller 40 in turn directs printer 38 to
print the destination information for stack 20, in human readable
form, on a section of film 36 which will be used to package stack
20. Conveyor 24 transports stack 20 to an automated packaging
machine 42 that wraps stack 20 with the preprinted section of film
36 to create a package or bundle 44 of mail destined for a single
address. Bundles 44 are then discharged onto a transfer conveyor
50.
[0020] In one variation, system controller 26 includes a database
including abbreviated forms of human readable destination
information for a plurality of delivery points within the area
served or a program for abbreviating human readable language. In
this variation, system controller 26 transmits an abbreviated
version of the destination information to printer controller 40,
enabling printing of abbreviated human readable destination
information on film 36. Further, in the case of most route
carriers, the city, state and zip code information will be
irrelevant as the carrier will likely need only enough information
to identify a delivery point on his or her route. Thus, for
example, "200 Broadway Street, Neverville, N.J. 24568" may be
printed as "200 Bor S" thereby minimizing the amount of time and
material required to print the information.
[0021] In addition to the delivery point information, printer 38
may optionally print a bar code on film 36 that is subsequently
scanned by a downstream bar code scanner 46 after stack 20 has been
wrapped. The bar code is used to ensure that the sequencing of
stacks 20 and bundles 44 is maintained in the correct order
according to the sequence of addresses that system controller 26
transmits to printer controller 40.
[0022] System controller 26 may also calculate the amount of film
36 required to wrap a particular stack based upon the signals from
position detector 28 which transmits a leading edge detection
signal along with a trailing edge detection signal for each stack
20. If desired, a second detector 30 such as a proximity sensor or
a vertically aligned array of photo cells may be used in
conjunction with or incorporated into position detector 28 to
determine the height of each stack 20 in order to provide
additional data for determining the amount of wrapping material
needed to wrap a particular stack 20. Since bundles 44 will contain
different sizes and amounts of mail pieces, the bundles will vary
in size. Thus, for example, a bundle including magazines of
catalogues could have the profile illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3,
whereas a bundle including several letters could have the profile
illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.
[0023] System controller 26 utilizes the data collected by
detectors 28 and 30 regarding the length and height of stack 20 to
determine the location on film 36 to print human readable
destination code information. The system controller then directs
printer controller 40 to print the human readable destination
information on film 36 at the calculated location such that the
destination information appears at a predetermined or preselected
location on each of bundles 44. Thus, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and
4, the delivery point information, in abbreviated form, could
appear on the upper left hand corner of bundles 44. Printing the
delivery point information at the same relative location on each
bundle aids the carrier in quickly finding and separating mail
destined for a given delivery point.
[0024] In one variation, the location on bundle 44 where the
destination information is printed is such that advertising or
other information displayed on mail pieces in bundles 44 is not
obscured when the stacks are wrapped with film 36. In this case,
film 36 is preferably transparent, at least in the area where it is
desired to expose the mail piece. In order to provide the desired
contrast for the printed destination information while
simultaneously exposing a mail piece in the bundle, it may be
necessary to utilize a film 36 having opaque and transparent
regions. Thus, if the delivery point information is printed with a
dark ink, it may be desirable to utilize a film 36 having a white
opaque border region where the destination information is printed
while the remainder of film 36 is transparent.
[0025] After stacks 20 have been converted to bundles 44, the
bundles are conveyed via transfer conveyor 50 past bar code scanner
46 to a loading guide 52. Loading guide 52 is configured to be
inserted in container 54 such that bundles 44 are loaded in
container 54 with a minimum amount of handling stress. In one
variation, guide 52 may comprise a pivoting conveyor or slide. In
another variation, guide 52 may be a device that physically grasps
bundle 44, such as a pair of opposed belt conveyors between which
bundles 44 are conveyed into container 54 at a controlled
velocity.
[0026] As bundles 44 accumulate in container 54, a proximity sensor
56 senses the height of the stack of bundles 44 in container 54 and
transmits the information to system controller 26. When the stack
of bundles 44 reaches a predetermined level, system controller 26
signals for a manual or automated replacement of container 54 with
an empty container. In one embodiment, the signal from system
controller 26 activates an audible alarm to notify the operator
that container 54 needs to be replaced or emptied. In a more
sophisticated system, the signal from system controller 26
activates an automated system for emptying or replacing container
54. Upon determining that container 54 needs to be emptied or
replaced, system controller 26 also signals printer controller 40
to shut down conveyor 24 until container 54 has been replaced with
an empty container.
[0027] Alternatively, or in addition to proximity sensor 56, a
scale 58 may be used to monitor the weight of container 54. As
bundles 44 are loaded into container 54, scale 58 transmits a
signal to system controller 26. When container 54 reaches a
predetermined weight, system controller 26 signals printer
controller 40 to shut down conveyor 24 and transmits a signal
requesting replacement of container 54 with an empty container.
[0028] While certain embodiments of the invention have been
illustrated for the purposes of this disclosure, numerous changes
in the method and apparatus of the invention presented herein may
be made by those skilled in the art, such changes being embodied
within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined in
the appended claims. For example, while the above description
describes separate system and printer controllers, it is
contemplated that the functions of these units could be combined in
a single microprocessor or similar computer. Similarly, while the
preferred wrapping material is a plastic film, it is contemplated
that other materials such a paper or a non-woven plastic web could
be employed as the wrapping material, depending upon the
application and economics.
* * * * *